Virginia Katz

land current

These three-dimensional landscape paintings, that began in 2010, represent the natural form that is our environment and presents them within the landscape painting tradition. My Land series of works focuses on the sublime physicality of nature associated with the cycles of flux, upheaval, and regeneration found both in the environment and as metaphors in our personal lives. The bodies of work in Land begin from the standpoint of the picture plane: the relief scene paintings create form from the surface outward; the topographical works excavate below the surface of the paper, creating peaks and valleys in the paper through debossing; and the watercolor paintings attempt to disperse the image into transparency.

The relief paintings are composed of inches-thick acrylic paint that becomes recreated land formations through various layers of manipulated paint handling. These landscape paintings represent the physicality of our world and bring three-dimensional natural form into the tradition of what has been a two-dimensional painting practice. The works tell a story of humanity’s dependency on, and shared nature with, the environment and its continuing evolution.

The relief paintings are shown on the wall and on pedestals.

Like So Many Leaves...

Acrylic Paint on Panel, Formed from Paint with Citrine, Peridot, Chalcedony, Gold and Silver Leaf
20" x 16" x 2.5", 2018

Like So Many Leaves... - detail -

Watershed

Formed Acrylic Paint on Panel
20" x16" x 5", 2018

Watershed - detail -

Unsteady Ground

Acrylic Paint Formed on Panel with Pearls and Turquoise
16" x 12" x 3", 2018

Unsteady Ground- detail -

Scorched Earth

Acrylic Paint Formed, Peeled, Cut and Sanded on Panel with Garnet, Topaz and Amethyst
20" x 16" x 4", 2018

Scorched Earth - detail -

Entanglement

Acrylic Paint Formed, Peeled, Cut and Sanded on Panel with Aquamarine, Citrine, Uncut and Cut Diamonds,
Black Tourmaline, Rutilated Quartz and Malachite
20" x 16" x 4", 2017

Entanglement - detail -

Recomposition

Acrylic Paint Formed, Torn, Cut and Sanded on Panel with Topaz, Amethyst, Ametrine and Quartz Crystals

20" x 16" x 5", 2017

Recomposition - detail -

Flesh of Our Flesh

Acrylic on Panel
20” x 16” x 4.5”, 2015

Flesh of Our Flesh

Debris Field

Acrylic Paint Formed, Peeled, Cut and Sanded on Panel
16” x 12” x 4”, 2017

Debris Field - detail -

Dry Bed

Acrylic on Panel
20” x 16” x 4”, 2015

Dry Bed - detail -

Breakdown, two views

Acrylic Paint Formed, Peeled, Cut and Sanded on Panel
72” x 52” x 6”, 2015

Breakdown - detail -

Studio View

Acrylic Paint Formed, Peeled, Cut and Sanded

Installation View

In 2006, I had been viewing satellite images of Earth on a regular basis. Thoughts of our living Earth being contained or enclosed by its surface and thinking of that surface as an anthropomorphized skin, deepened my awareness of the many literal and metaphorical connections that we share with the environmental form in which we live. I then began recreating textured, imagined topographical land formations on paper, employing multi-layered processes of printmaking, drawing, and painting.

These works began as monoprints, and are then printed onto a collograph. The process continued with stages of drawing and painting to create original prints. Natural materials, such as leaves, vines, tree bark, and soil, were incorporated into the transfers. Working on paper here allowed me great flexibility in embedding scars and traces of force into the work, which parallels the impact that man and nature impose on the land.

Into the Abyss I, II, III

Mixed Media, Mixed Process Original Prints
66” x 36” each, 2017

Into the Abyss II

Into the Abyss III - detail -

Deep Waters

Mixed Media, Mixed Process Original Print
66” x 36”, 2017

Deep Waters - detail -

Studio View

Into the Light I

Mixed Media, Mixed Process Original Print
66” x 36”, 2017

Into the Light - detail -

The Point of No Return

Mixed Media, Mixed Process Original Print
66” x 36”, 2017

The Point of No Return - detail -

Lost Horizons

Mixed Media, Mixed Process Original Print Mounted on Panel
66” x 36”, 2015

Lost Horizons- detail -

Bloom

Mixed Media, Mixed Process Original Print Mounted on Panel
30” x 22”, 2014

Dissections

Mixed Media, Mixed Process Original Print Mounted on Panel
30" x 22”, 2014

Force Fields – Wetlands

Mixed Media, Mixed Process Originial Print
30” x 22”, 2007

Installation View

This series of watercolor paintings is a response to the three-dimensional nature of the relief paintings in Land. The choices of materials and techniques are important considerations in completing my paintings. Here, three-dimensional form is de-emphasized and is represented by the use of transparent paint on paper. Working with transparency that, in most cases is monochromatic and almost colorless, I ‘let go’ of physicality and attempt to enter the meta-physical.

The images depict cycles of upheaval and evolution which are metaphors for those kinds of experiences in our lives. Since we share our origins with the rest of nature, we can attribute and claim similar transformation and rebirth. Visiting a tsunami site in Japan after the great earthquake of 2011, as well as witnessing burn areas in Southern California and flash flood zones in the Southwest, deepened my awareness of the precarious spectrum of life in the world as well as on an individual basis.

All three series in Land are ongoing...